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The Environmental Protection Agency took a
major step Monday toward regulating greenhouses gases, concluding
that climate changing pollution threatens the public health and the
environment.

      The announcement came as the Obama administration looked to
boost its arguments at an international climate conference that the
United States is aggressively taking actions to combat global
warming, even though Congress has yet to act on climate
legislation. The conference opened Monday in Copenhagen.

      The EPA said that the scientific evidence surrounding climate
change clearly shows that greenhouse gases "threaten the public
health and welfare of the American people" and that the pollutants
- mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels - should be
regulated under the Clean Air Act.

      "These long-overdue findings cement 2009's place in history as
the year when the United States government began addressing the
challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution," said EPA Administrator
Lisa Jackson at news conference.

      The action by the EPA, which has been anticipated for months,
clearly was timed to add to the momentum toward some sort of
agreement on climate change at the Copenhagen conference and try to
push Congress to approve climate legislation.

      "This is a clear message to Copenhagen of the Obama
administration's commitments to address global climate change,"
said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., lead author of a climate bill before
the Senate. "The message to Congress is crystal clear: get
moving."


      Under a Supreme Court ruling, the so-called endangerment finding
is needed before the EPA can regulate carbon dioxide and five other
greenhouse gases released from automobiles, power plants, and
factories under the federal Clean Air Act.

      The EPA signaled last April that it was inclined to view
heat-trapping pollution as a threat to public health and welfare
and began to take public comments under a formal rulemaking. 

The
action marked a reversal from the Bush administration, which had
refused before leaving office to issue the finding, despite a
conclusion by EPA scientists that it was warranted.

      Business groups have strongly argued against tackling global
warming through the Clean Air Act, saying it is less flexible and
more costly than the cap-and-trade bill being considered before
Congress. On Monday, some of those groups questioned the timing of
the EPA's announcement, calling it political.

      "The implications of today's action by EPA are
far-reaching...individual Americans and consumers and businesses
alike will be dramatically affected by this decision," said
Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemical &
Refiners Association. 


Drevna, in a statement, said "it is hardly
the time to risk the remainder of the U.S. industrial sector in an
attempt to achieve a short-term international public relations
victory."


      Any regulations are also likely to spawn lawsuits and lengthy
legal fights.


      The EPA and the White House have said regulations on greenhouse
gases will not be imminent even after an endangerment finding,
saying that the administration would prefer that Congress act to
limit such pollution through an economy-wide cap on carbon dioxide
and other greenhouse gases.

      Nevertheless, the EPA has begun the early stages of developing
permit requirements on carbon dioxide pollution from large emitters
such as power plants.


 The administration also has said it will set
the first-ever greenhouse gas emissions standards for automobiles
and raise fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon by 2016 to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions.

      The EPA's readiness to tackle climate change is expected to give
a boost to U.S. arguments at the climate conference opening in
Copenhagen this week, where the United States offer a provisional
target to reduce greenhouse gases.

      While the House has approved climate legislation that would cut
emissions by 17 percent by 2020 and about 80 percent by
mid-century, the Senate has yet to take up the measure amid strong
Republican opposition and reluctance by some centrist Democrats.

      Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., lead author of the Senate bill, has
argued that if Congress doesn't act, the EPA will regulate
greenhouse gas emissions. He has called EPA regulation a "blunt
instrument" that would pose a bigger problem for industry than
legislation crafted to mitigate some of the costs of shifting away
from carbon emitting fossil fuels.

      The way was opened for the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to cut
climate-changing emissions by the Supreme Court in 2007, when the
court declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are
pollutants under the Act. 


But the court said the EPA must determine
if these pollutants pose a danger to public health and welfare
before it can regulate them.
      

Gallery

MPCA says more greenhouse gas regulations not the answer

UN climate conference opens

Studies: Fighting global warming reduces human diseases

The Environmental Protection Agency took a
major step Monday toward regulating greenhouses gases, concluding
that climate changing pollution threatens the public health and the
environment.


EPA: Greenhouse gases endanger human health

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